Linux and UNIX Man Pages

Linux & Unix Commands - Search Man Pages

cp(1) [minix man page]

CP(1)							      General Commands Manual							     CP(1)

NAME
cp, cpdir - file copy SYNOPSIS
cp [-pifsmrRvx] file1 file2 cp [-pifsrRvx] file ... directory cpdir [-ifvx] file1 file2 OPTIONS
-p Preserve full mode, uid, gid and times -i Ask before removing existing file -f Forced remove existing file -s Make similar, copy some attributes -m Merge trees, disable the into-a-directory trick -r Copy directory trees with link structure, etc. intact -R Copy directory trees and treat special files as ordinary -v Display what cp is doing -x Do not cross device boundaries EXAMPLES
cp oldfile newfile # Copy oldfile to newfile cp -R dir1 dir2 # Copy a directory tree DESCRIPTION
Cp copies one file to another, or copies one or more files to a directory. Special files are normally opened and read, unless -r is used. -r also copies the link structure, something -R doesn't care about. The -s option differs from -p that it only copies the times if the target file already exists. A normal copy only copies the mode of the file, with the file creation mask applied. Set-uid bits are cleared if the owner cannot be set. (The -s flag does not patronize you by clearing bits. Alas -s and -r are nonstandard.) Cpdir is a convenient synonym for cp -psmr to make a precise copy of a directory tree. SEE ALSO
cat(1), mkdir(1), rmdir(1), ln(1), rm(1). CP(1)

Check Out this Related Man Page

cp(1)							      General Commands Manual							     cp(1)

Name
       cp - copy file data

Syntax
       cp [ -f ] [ -i ] [ -p ] file1 file2

       cp [ -f ] [ -i ] [ -p ] [ -r ] file... directory

       cp [ -f ] [ -i ] [ -p ] [ -r ] directory... directory

Description
       The command copies file1 onto file2.  The mode and owner of file2 are preserved if it already existed; the mode of file1 is used otherwise.
       Note that the command will not copy a file onto itself.

       In the second form, one or more files are copied into the directory with their original file names.

       In the third form, one or more source directories are copied into the destination directory with their original file names.

Options
       -f   Forces existing destination pathnames to be removed before copying, without prompting for confirmation.  The -i option is  ignored	if
	    the -f option is specified.

       -i   Prompts  user  with  the name of file whenever the copy will cause an old file to be overwritten. A yes answer will cause to continue.
	    Any other answer will prevent it from overwriting the file.

       -p   Preserves (duplicates) in the copies the modification time, access time, file mode, user ID, and group ID as allowed  by  the  permis-
	    sions of the source files, ignoring the present umask.

       -r   Copies  directories.  Entire directory trees, including their subtrees and the individual files they contain, are copied to the speci-
	    fied destination directory. The directory, its subtrees, and the individual files retain their original names. For	example,  to  copy
	    the directory including all of its subtrees and files, into the directory enter the following command:
	    cp -r reports news

See Also
       cat(1), pr(1), mv(1)

																	     cp(1)
Man Page

15 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Copy code to vi

Hi, whenever I copy a code to vi session from other script it just goes weird. It just goes across the whole screen and looks really bizzare If the code is small I can manually remove the tabs and indent it correctly but if it is 2000 lines it makes it really difficult. Is there something... (12 Replies)
Discussion started by: rooh
12 Replies

2. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Copying a Directory Structure to a new structure

Hi all Is it possible to copy a structure of a directory only. e.g. I have a file with the following entries that is a result of a find :- /dir1/dir2/file.dbf /dir1/dir2/dir3/file1.dbf /dir1/file.dbf I want to copy these to a directory and keep the structure however starting at a new dir... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: jhansrod
8 Replies

3. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Copy all the files with time stamp and remove header,trailer from file

All, I am new to unix and i have the following requirement. I have file(s) landing into input directory with timestamp, first i want to copy all these files into seperate directory then i want to rename these files without timestamp and also remove header,trailer from that file.. Could... (35 Replies)
Discussion started by: ksrams
35 Replies

4. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

multiple copies at once

Dear all, Today I spend almost all my day with something I hope any of you can help me with... I'm trying to write a small script (!/bin/sh) to be able to make 900 copies of one file. Can anyone help me with this? I couldn't figure this out (maybe I need to create some sort of loop) and couldn't... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: marjocello
8 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

How do I search first&second string & copy all content between them to other file?

Hi All, How do I search first string & second string and copy all content between them from one file to another file? Please help me.. Thanks In Advance. Regards, Pankaj (12 Replies)
Discussion started by: pankajp
12 Replies

6. Shell Programming and Scripting

cp work as xcopy.

Actually i want to copy some file locations to another. so if directory not exist it should create that. i used cp -R/r but it copies only one directory. it doesnt make directory inside directory.. so i want this should create them automatically. One more thing if file already exist there... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: ajayyadavmca
8 Replies

7. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Copy Compress as one command

Hi, I need to copy and compress files in a directory in single line of command. I am able to copy and gzip files in one command but not directory. Command that I am using for copying directory is below : cp -rp /u01/app/<directory> /u01/app/backup |gzip -r /u01/app/backup/<directory> ... (10 Replies)
Discussion started by: findprakash
10 Replies

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

remove lines from file

Hi gurus, i'm trying to remove a number of lines from a large file using the following command: sed '1,5000d' oldfile > newfile Somehow the lines in the old file are not deleted... Am I doing this wrongly? Any suggestions? :confused: Thanks! :) wee (10 Replies)
Discussion started by: lweegp
10 Replies

9. Shell Programming and Scripting

Copy files based on modification date

How to copy files from a location to a directory <YYMM> based on last modification date? This will need to run daily. I want to copy those file for May to 0905 and Jun to 0906. Appreciate your guidance.:) Thanks. -rw-rw-rw- 1 ttusr tgrp 4514 May 29 21:49 AB24279J.lot_a... (17 Replies)
Discussion started by: KhawHL
17 Replies

10. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Copy files in Parallel

Is there any out of box Command in Unix or is it possible through shell scripting to copy all the files in a directory in Parallel. Example. I am doing a COLD database backup. I have the data/dbx directory which has around 1000 data files. I was thinking is there a way to spawn the copy... (10 Replies)
Discussion started by: simonsimon
10 Replies

11. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

How to copy a file to a directory?

Hello all, I've been researching this problem for days, and have gotten no luck . =/ How do you copy a file to another directory without being in the same directory as the file? So, for example, say I wanted to copy the file 'my.txt' that is in the directory ' /export/hom0/user/asdf ' to the... (9 Replies)
Discussion started by: kvnqiu
9 Replies

12. Shell Programming and Scripting

Copy files from subdir

Hey, How can I copy files from subdirectories without copy the subdir and copy it to a higher dir For example: /home/test/subdir/file1 copy file1 to /home or another dir thanx (11 Replies)
Discussion started by: Eclecticaa
11 Replies

13. Shell Programming and Scripting

Replacing string values from a File

I want to replace string values from a file to a file For eg : File1 has 30 lines of string with values, those specific values needs to be changed in file2 and remaining values in file2 should be as it is. For example: From file (File1) cluster.name=secondaryCluster To replace File... (9 Replies)
Discussion started by: sriram003
9 Replies

14. Shell Programming and Scripting

Count files in every directory

Hi all, I'm looking over all the internet for finding how to make a count of the files for every directory apart.. not a total result for the xx directories. For example: -dir1 file1 file2 -subdir1 -subdir2 file1 -subdir3 file1 -dir2 -dir3 file4 ... (9 Replies)
Discussion started by: CODIII
9 Replies

15. UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

Copy files in order of creation date

Hi everyone :-) I ran into a small issue. I would like to copy some files in the precise order they were created. So the oldest files should be copied first and the newest ones last. I tried cp -r $(ls -1t) ./destination but the files are still not sorted properly. I was thinking, that... (11 Replies)
Discussion started by: officiallyme
11 Replies